The scientists and health officials had been saying for years that the world was due for another pandemic, but none were prepared for the one that hit the world in 2029 and lasted for two years. A warming planet had been doing strange things to the life cycle and spread of viruses and pathogens while industrial civilization had slowly been losing ground with the efficacy of its antibiotics and drugs. And it didn’t help that in a capitalist world, Big Pharma was more interested in the large pay-off of a drug like viagra than in the investment and development of the next generation of antibiotics. Rampant overuse and abuse of such medicines in the medical and agricultural fields had allowed pathogens to mutate and overcome man’s pharmaceutical weapons, jumping from the animal population to the human world.

With the unraveling of the industrial world already well underway at the time due to peak oil, massive unemployment, and bankrupt governments, conspiracy theories ran rampant about the source of this deadly pandemic that at its height would kill tens of millions per day. Once the total numbers were tallied, nearly two-thirds of the global human population were found to have been wiped out. Some thought it was a genetically engineered disease released by a rogue government scientist, or perhaps a germ weapon research project gone awry, while others thought it was a State sponsored terrorist act. Few accepted the fact that this plague was simply the disastrous outcome of our blind faith in technology as well as Nature’s inevitable push-back from centuries of human assault and incursion. Ironically, it was not specifically peak oil or climate change or financial ruin that quickly brought down the globalized hi-tech world, but the microbial world unseen by the naked eye. The meek had indeed inherited the Earth. With 5 billion people dead and the economy in disarray, greenhouse gases plummeted, but too little too late to stop all the positive climatic feedback loops that had long since been set into motion. Of course nearly all of the global elite managed to cocoon themselves from the general population, avoiding the lethal airborne virus. Mother Nature had finally pulled an ace out of her sleeve for which there was no available antidote. The initial symptoms of the virus were flu-like, but quickly lead to bleeding from every orifice and a rapid filling of the lungs with fluid, suffocating its victims. Young and old were affected equally. Hospitals, overwhelmed by the number of victims, became more like morgues. Centers were set up to incinerate the mountains of bodies piling up throughout the cities.

The African Flu Pandemic of 2029, which is believed to have originated in the war-torn jungles of the Congo, became better known as “The First Great Culling”. Proper sanitation and medical services never fully returned in any country, and a large migration of survivors away from cities ensued in subsequent years. This was really the watershed moment in modern times where myths of eternal progress, the superiority of mega-cities, and the triumph of man over nature were shattered. The desperate extraction of the most dirty and dangerous sources of fossil fuel came to an abrupt end. Regional differences and conflicts temporarily disappeared while teetering governments, too traumatized to think about anything other than their own internal problems, administered triage to their surviving population. Industrial civilization had suffered a major heart attack. This mass die-off was only the first wave of catastrophes that would befall the world. Weapons of mass destruction would soon be used again as the Earth’s remnant human population fought to gain control of the remaining habitable areas in the polar regions.

Rhetoric about ‘civil society’ and ‘global cooperation’ were quaint ideas of a bygone era, now horribly out-of-date in these post-apocalyptic days of struggling to eke out an existence in inhospitable, resource-depleted places. The global elite simply became more cutthroat in the face of this brutal reality. Technology came to be used more and more as a tool of control and oppression over the lower class who were more than willing to be slaves if it meant a full stomach and a place to sleep in one of the underground sanctuaries built to escape climate chaos. Vast geoengineering projects became mankind’s primary endeavor as he vainly attempted to restore what he had so thoughtlessly and methodically destroyed.

Because we have created our own processed environment of roads, cars, industry, buildings, malls, homes; because we live in a world designed by capitalism, a world of incessant advertising, sales and the desperate, frantic pursuit of material things; we rarely, if ever, experience an intimate connection with the natural world we are hoping to save.

~ Salvatore Folisi

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About xraymike79

I'm a social critic, political/cultural commentator and artist. The modern industrial world is on the cusp of great changes to our current unsustainable way of life. Most people are oblivious to the paradigm shift that will occur, but some are starting to awaken to the fact that the future will not resemble the halcyon days of the last half century in America as evidenced by the OWS movement. My objective is to highlight important news stories and find the truth that is hidden behind what Joe Bageant called the American Hologram.
www.collapseofindustrialcivilization.com

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45 thoughts on “The First Great Culling”

This presentation underlines how it’s not what we see that’s the biggest threat to our survival, but all that we don’t see: noxious gases, radiation, viruses and bacteria, among others.

With Fukushima becoming more problematic each day, continually leaking highly radioactive substances into the Pacific, thereby sending it up the food chain to us, ultimately, and killing or mutating all of the marine life as it gets worse, we’ll find ourselves painted into the proverbial corner with no way out.

Add to this all the methane trapping heat at much higher levels than previously thought (hat tip to the latest IPCC report), fracking waste being both radioactive AND leaking methane throughout the natural gas extraction process, and the Arctic Methane Emergency Group’s projection of a completely ice-free Arctic by 2015 (if not sooner) causing the increased warming there to allow tundra and permafrost to release even more methane in a large band around the Northern hemisphere (while the Southern hemisphere is dealing with its own version via Antarctica) and we quickly see how far past hopeless our condition actually is in the short term.

Add to all that the fact that trees and vegetation are dying all over the world due to ozone increase and other unhealthy pollution from our industrial civilization, social upheaval as crop failure takes hold, increased political tension (as opposed to cooperation) and war for the last of the industrial resources, glaciers and aquifers drying up and/or being polluted, economic meltdown guaranteed before long due to the shenanigans of the world’s interconnected banks (see the derivative bomb for just one example), supply chain interruption from infrastructure neglect (among a host of other factors), bugs and pests affecting trees, crops and humanity at an increasing rate, inexorable sea level rise, massive storms causing unheard of damage (impacting the insurance industry to the point of bankruptcy), and the fact that most of us are already out of our minds to even live this way, but are “functional” nonetheless.

All of that BEFORE we even consider the naturally occurring catastrophes like plagues, earthquakes, sinkholes, tsunamis, mega-storms, solar flares, incoming meteors, magnetic pole-shift, volcanic activity and the like indicate that there isn’t even a remote chance that humanity will see the middle of the century in numbers anywhere near what exist now, with complete extinction a high probability.

“Researchers believe that climate change may be contributing to a worldwide rise in insect populations which, so far, has yielded horrifying results. This week, the number of human deaths caused by the Giant Asian Hornet reached 28 in central China alone. The number of reported injuries due to the massive insects is well over 400.

Rising temperatures in Asia have created an optimal breeding environment for the hornets, which are roughly the size of human thumbs and traditionally prey on honeybees. However, as honeybee populations continue to decrease due to colony collapse disorder, the hornets have turned to attacking humans. Since 2005, the death toll from hornet attacks has more than doubled.

As if getting stung by a swarm of giant hornets isn’t bad enough, the venom from the quarter inch stinger can cause anaphylactic shock and kidney failure.

And, possibly the worst news yet, the Giant Asian Hornet is no longer exclusive to the continent in its name. Last year, the vicious insect – which has been known to chase victims for hundreds of meters and sting them up to 200 times – was spotted in Illinois.”

SALEKHARD (Northern Russia), September 24 (RIA Novosti) – Melting permafrost and warmer temperatures in the Arctic could trigger the release of both known and new infectious diseases in the region, a Russian scientist warned Tuesday.
Speaking at “The Arctic – Territory of Dialogue” forum, Boris Revich from the Moscow-based Institute of Forecasting said it is essential to carry out research now in order to reduce the risks of outbreaks.
“There is a risk that the melting of the permafrost could release the anthrax virus from thawed cattle burial grounds,” Revich said. “We need to understand whether it’s a risk, whether we can forecast it or whether we can forget about it.”
The scientist cited the appearance of malaria and tick-borne encephalitis in the Russian north as examples of the health consequences of warmer temperatures.
However, the most dangerous outcome could be the emergence of previously unknown infectious diseases that could take mankind by surprise.

The advent of industrial over application of antibiotics – particularly in “confined animal feeding operations” – plus unnecessary prescription by doctors has already led to the evolution of deadly multi-drug resistant pathogens. The race is on, does anyone doubt who will win?

“The global elite simply became more cutthroat in the face of this brutal reality. Technology came to be used more and more as a tool of control and oppression over the lower class who were more than willing to be slaves if it meant a full stomach and a place to sleep in one of the underground sanctuaries built to escape climate chaos. Vast geoengineering projects became mankind’s primary endeavor as he vainly attempted to restore what he had so thoughtlessly and methodically destroyed.”

Whishful thinking, At this point, there is no electricity since many years.

It’s interesting that you used the word cull, rather than die-off. To cull is to deliberately reduce numbers, whereas die-off indicates a natural response to adverse conditions.

Japan is the first highly developed large nation to experience die-off, partly because of the lack of immigration which pushes the populations of most other developed nations upwards. Despite all the money-printing and faux highs of Japanese markets Japan is in accelerating terminal decline. I read somewhere that there are around 7 million abandoned houses in Japan that nobody can be bothered doing anything with because there is no profit in demolition for a dying nation. What a turn-around from the 1980s! It’s almost Detroit on a mega-scale.

The rapidly rising levels of obesity associated with ingestion of large amounts of industrially produced ‘food’ are creating time bombs of illnesses just at the stage when industrialised medicine is beginning to fail. I believe the Chinese are now starting to succumb to industrial disease (as well as the horrendous levels of pollution).

I like the word ‘cull’. Would the psychopaths, who are at the helm of industrial civilization, intentionally reduce human population? Yes, I think they would. They say it’s “God’s work.” Drones cull the population. War culls the population. High food prices cull the population. Land and resource grabs cull the population. Perpetuating an unsustainable way of living culls the population.

I get emails on Fukushima everyday, and I can’t bear to read most of them. When that catastrophe first happened, an essay I read in the beginning said it all:

“I like the word ‘cull’. Would the psychopaths, who are at the helm of industrial civilization, intentionally reduce human population? Yes, I think they would.”

They already did. The Irish Potato famine 1846-52

Christine Kinealy expresses the consensus of historians when she states:

“…the government had to do something to help alleviate the suffering, the particular nature of the actual response, especially following 1846, suggests a more covert agenda and motivation. As the Famine progressed, it became apparent that the government was using its information not merely to help it formulate its relief policies, but also as an opportunity to facilitate various long-desired changes within Ireland. These included population control and the consolidation of property through various means, including emigration… Despite the overwhelming evidence of prolonged distress caused by successive years of potato blight, the underlying philosophy of the relief efforts was that they should be kept to a minimalist level; in fact they actually decreased as the Famine progressed.”

A reasonable argument can be made that the same pattern is going on today in various parts of the world. Why are they allowing tens of thousands of Americans to die miserable deaths for lack of competent health care?

Martin Wolf of the Financial Times had the temerity to challenge the masters of the universe with the following observation: “…out-of-control financial sector is eating out the modern market economy from the inside, just as the larva of the spider wasp eats out the host in which it has been laid”. Of course by “the market economy” he means the productive economy which is now down to oil fracking, pipelines, pharmeceutaicals, invading foreign countries with resources and printing money for the benefit of the plutocracy.

“The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity — much less dissent.” ~ Gore Vidal, author (1925-2012)

As the body deteriorates under the malignant cancer model of progress, I would expect some futile attempts at proactive population reduction, it falls within the gamut of human sociopathological behavior. But then again, the entire human technological endeavor is pathological. First we will implement geo-engineering projects to allow continued feasting upon the ecosystem and whatever additional parts of the dead fossil fuel corpus we can bring to the surface. All we need to do is stabilize the failing ecosystem so we can finish it off in the shade.

I was flipping through channels on the television last night and stopped on a channel featuring televangelist Joel Osteen. The heads in the coliseum were bobbing up and down in agreement, hallelujahs were emanating from the crowd. The dopamine drip of salvation and reward made the crowd ecstatic. In contrast, any message without reward is an unwelcome one, an unbelievable one, to be discarded, disposed of in the recycle bin of the mind. Humans are enthralled by their own nuerochemistry and will never be dispossessed of beliefs or actions that readily reward them.

Anyone that stands in the way or interrupts the dopamine delivery, the cancerous growth, will be branded a heretic, a non-believer and will be brushed aside, silenced or eliminated. The pressure to conform to a warped and ignorant herd mentality will be socially enforced. As with Obamacare, you will not have a choice to opt out, you will be forced to participate in this insanity until the last quantity of energy is usurped by the massive starving cancerous infrastructure.

Arnie Gundersen, Fairewinds Chief Engineer: We’re constantly frustrated — We have scientists contacting us, doctors contacting us, telling us that their patients are suffering from radiation induced injuries, or they’re noticing deformities in animals and plants, but yet the Japanese government is trying to put the heat on them to prevent those studies from moving forward.

‘Finally, it should be comforting to all skeptics to remember that the truly amazing part of all of this is not that so few beliefs change or that people can be so irrational, but that anyone’s beliefs ever change at all. Skeptics’ ability to alter their own beliefs in response to data is a true gift; a unique, powerful, and precious ability. It is genuinely a “higher brain function” in that it goes against some of the most natural and fundamental biological urges. Skeptics must appreciate the power and, truly, the dangerousness that this ability bestows upon them.’

Since 2007 I have discovered that many (dare I say most)? of the institutions we regard as foundational to western societies are corrupt to the core or are populated with incompetent fools.

As noted on so many occasions, it will get very interesting when the teat of cheap energy is withdrawn. Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Japan, and a long list of largely forgotten nations are leading the way down the path of energy unaffordability.

With sirens blaring and people scrambling for safety all around him, an unidentified man in a suit and tie seems to be buried in his BlackBerry as he strolls by a Capitol Hill Police officer taking position with an assault rifle.

“That’s D.C., right? People are so wrapped up in that little device in their hands that nothing else matters,” said Doug Mills, a New York Times photographer who captured the surreal moment during Thursday’s lockdown at the U.S. Capitol.

Mills took the photo from a third-floor window of the Senate building where doors were being locked because a dramatic car chase and shooting were unfolding on the streets outside.

“There were guys running all around with their guns,” Mills told Yahoo News…. – link

“A paradox of life in these times is the inverse relationship between technological wizardry and the satisfactions of being a live organism in a real place (i.e., on the planet Earth). It probably boils down to a proposition that the American public is not ready to entertain: that the virtual is not an adequate substitute for the authentic. Eventually it will be a hard lesson to learn.”

“Our current behavior suggests a rather new incapacity to survey the horizon of reality and come to some consistent conclusions about what we ought to do next and how we ought to act, and it is beginning to look like we won’t act but rather just let history break over us like a great punishing wave, drowning the spellbound observers on the shore and washing away the monuments we erected to our own specialness. This cataclysm, where peak resources meet climate change, will bring on a time-out from the worship of “cutting edge” progress — since the cutting edge will have severed many heads in its transit around the earth — and it could bring on something we might characterize as a dark age where we’re too busy toting up the losses to do anything else but struggle to stay alive. But, we should desire deeply to want more than that. We should want to play a part in the healing of the planet and the redemption of our species and some people in some places will be more successful in this endeavor than others in other places. It will require the re-enchantment of everyday life.”

They gambol in the sun without a care in the world having largely eradicated the need for deep thinking, or even work.

Down below are the Morlocks, subterranean creatures, who do all of the heavy lifting, but who, as Wells’s masterly science fiction tale unfolds, are the real masters, keeping the Eloi as terrified victims. It’s an obvious Wellsian warning about the future. About the division of labour and the removal of society from its own means of production. Without stretching the point to breaking, I think there might be a touch of the Eloi in modern society.

Bear with me for a bit, but might the modern-day Morlocks be, among others, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, the late Steve Jobs of Apple, or Sergey Brin of Google?

For under the guise of a technological revolution that has freed the world, have they not actually enslaved it?…

‘Seeing the light’ causes changes in perception that reveal almost everything in the present political-economic system is absurd (and omnicidal).

The key to elites maintaining present political-economic arrangements in the short term is ensuring that the masses do not ‘see the light’.

Since governments are swimming in an ocean of lies generated by governments times are becoming increasingly ‘interesting’. It is abundantly clear to anyone capable of independent thought that present political-economic arrangements have no long term future.

Anarchists absolutely and unequivocably need to concentrate on ridding this planet of its globalist banking cabals. 3/4 or your site is distraction, shooting the beast and yourselves in the foot. Destroy the IMF, the World Bank, the BIS, the City of London, Wall St. and their bootlicks and you’ll have actually accomplished something. All the other hot button issues will mop up easily once the destruction of globalist debt obligation is smashed. Anarchists don’t need to be accused of being the dumbest smart people on the planet. A sense of esthetics will not win this struggle. Take the brain shot, ya knuckleheads. This autonomous beer’s on me.

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